Run by Photographers, for Photographers

Archive for November, 2013

Redeye, a not for profit photography organisation based in Manchester, is holding a one-day seminar on Post-war free press and creativity at the Imperial War Museum North, the Quays, Manchester, on the 1st of December (11:15am to 3:45pm).

In nations that have been torn apart by conflict or have been repressed by totalitarian dictatorships, how do the people establish a free and independent press?

What part does credible public information and free expression play in rebuilding a country and preventing a return to violence?

How can people and organisations respond in a creative way to the destruction and brutality they have faced?

What can we, as nations, organisations and individuals do to help and support the development of a free press and creativity in these situations?

This one-day seminar will seek to answer these questions through a series of talks and panel discussion. The day will feature presentations from Iraq-based photo agency Metrography, Manchester-based social entrepreneur and researcher Ruth Daniel (In Place of War) and journalist and journalism activist Aidan White (former General Secretary of the International Federation of Journalists and currently Director of the Ethical Journalism Network).

A recording of the talk on the staff photographer redundancies at the Johnston Press regional newspaper group, given by NUJ Deputy General Secretary Barry Fitzpatrick at our November branch meeting, is available via the link below. Unfortunately, contributions from the floor were not recorded at sufficient quality, and have been cut from this edit.

In the first part of this month’s branch meeting NUJ Deputy General Secretary Barry Fitzpatrick will be speaking about the 24 Johnston Press photographers facing redundancy, and what can be done to support them. We will also be showing the first instalment of the branch’s Working Lives video project, which relates directly to the struggle to maintain quality content and professional expertise in the local and regional press, and discussing how we should proceed with it.

The 24 compulsory staff photographer redundancies announced by the Johnston Press last week are yet another illustration of the low regard in which the skills and expertise of professional photographers are held by many of their employers. The failure to recognise the valuable contribution photographers make to the quality of their publications will not only impact on those directly concerned, but will also inevitably result in falling readership and revenues, and the loss of an important element of local democracy and community life.

The NUJ London Photographers Branch condemns this action by the Johnston Press as both a bad business strategy and an unacceptable way to treat its hard-working staff, and demands their immediate reinstatement.

The Working Lives project grew out of a discussion at a branch meeting last year, at the height of the furore surrounding the Hacked Off campaign and the Leveson enquiry. Photographers of all kinds were being maligned as a result of allegations about the behaviour of a very small number of so-called paparazzi, and it seemed clear that the public at large had little idea of the great variety of work that photojournalists do on a daily basis.

This video, an interview with Anne-Marie Sanderson, chief photographer at North London & Herts News, is the first of what we hope will be a series about the working lives of the photographer and videographer members of the LPB. The aim of the project is to show, to the public at large, the range of their work, their motivations for doing it, and the problems they sometimes face. It will also hopefully appeal to potential new members, both those already in the industry, and college students and graduates hoping to enter it.

Anne-Marie is unusual in being a staff photographer. The vast majority of LPB members are freelancers, and the branch plans to follow this pilot with interviews that cover the wide range of specialisms and working practices that they are engaged in. This first piece offers an insight into the complexity and value of local newspaper photography, on how it is changing as more and more of it moves online, and the crucial support provided by the union when disputes arise.

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Working LIves

The branch is producing a series of video interviews to illustrate the range of work undertaken by its members. The first two are with local newspaper photographer Anne-Marie Sanderson, and freelancer John Sturrock.